


Little Earthquake

by LaTessitrice



Series: Echo Prompts [6]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Echo - Freeform, F/M, When there's so little fic for a pairing you have to write it yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 11:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18249275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaTessitrice/pseuds/LaTessitrice
Summary: Prompt: Outsider POV, Max and power surges





	Little Earthquake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [circular_infinity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/circular_infinity/gifts).



> Crossposted from Less Seen Roswell New Mexico Ficathon on LJ.

“Did you see that?”  
  
Maria nudges Rosa with her shoulder to gain her attention, which is currently somewhere in the depths of her overflowing locker.   
  
“Yeah. The lights again,” her friend replies, casting a glance up at the overhead fluorescents. “This place is a dive. With any luck the school will burn down so I don’t have to take that stupid calc test.” She slams the locker door shut, hiding the patchwork of Counting Crows and Gin Blossoms posters inside.  
  
“Not those.” Maria gestures down the hallway, where a gaggle of students are waiting to enter a classroom. “Your sister.”  
  
“Oh yeah,” Rosa replies, taking note of her sister’s presence, but still puzzled at why Maria was watching her with such interest.  
  
“And Max Evans.”  
  
“Kid grew up over the summer, huh.”  
  
He did, and it’s pretty obvious he’s not comfortable with his new height, stooping so he doesn’t loom over his classmates quite so much.   
  
“Look at how he’s looking at her!” Maria enthuses. “The boy’s got it bad.”  
  
Rosa dismisses this, taking Maria’s arm to steer them in the opposite direction. “That’s nothing new. Anyway, cover for me in trig, I’ve gotta see a guy about a thing.” And she’s off, pushing against the tide of people, while the lights flicker low overhead.

* * *

Now she’s seen it, Maria cannot unsee it. The way Max Evans watches Liz Ortecho with open adoration whenever they share the same space, even if Liz is oblivious. Her head’s been turned by Kyle Valenti.  _Ugh_ , that guy. Even those cheekbones can’t make up for his reek of obnoxiousness. He keeps trying to persuade her to steal booze from the bar for him, like she’d ever do anything nice for him when he’s such a continuous dick to Alex.  
  
“I swear the wiring in this shithole is getting worse,” Rosa says as they plow through the crowd at the end of the school day. The lights are doing their thing again, just as Rosa catches up with Liz. She’s sharing a laugh with Max, who looks both delighted and awed at her reaction to whatever he’s said to her. “You ready to go?” Rosa cuts in, and Max looks away, suddenly bashful at the interruption.  
  
He waves after Liz as they walk away, watching her with a wistful smile. Maria catches his eye and raises an eyebrow, and he jams his hands into his pockets, looking like a puppy who’s been caught doing something it shouldn’t. She doesn’t know why. If only every girl in the world had a boy looking after them like Max Evans looks at Liz Ortecho.

* * *

It takes her some time to notice the pattern; the lights and the power surges are just part of the background tapestry of their school, a product of lack of funding and maintenance.   
  
They’re in the Crashdown after school, making the most of the free food Rosa manages to slip their way when her dad isn’t looking. Maria’s sharing fries with Alex and Liz is doing her homework on the counter despite the gentle teasing from everyone else.  
  
“No Kyle?” Maria asks.  
  
“He’s got practice,” Liz replies, chewing the end of her pen while she frowns down at an equation. Maria and Alex share a relieved glance, then Maria sidles over to where Rosa is cleaning down a table.  
  
“Why are you so chill with her dating him?” she asks, their conversation drowned out by the jukebox. “He’s a tool. She can do so much better.”  
  
Rosa shrugs as she wipes the melamine. “Aren’t all guys? He’s sweet to her at least.”  
  
“Not all guys,” Maria protests.  
  
“Oh yeah? Name one boy our age who isn’t after the same thing.”  
  
Maria doesn’t need to name him; the door chimes and in shuffles Max, followed by his weird friend Guerin. Maria doesn’t know the second guy well—he keeps to himself mostly—but the timing is impeccable. She cocks her head in Max’s direction.  
  
Rosa scoffs. “That nerd?”  
  
“Rosa, he  _adores_  her.”  
  
To prove Maria’s point, Liz looks up from her homework and notices Max, sending a brilliant smile in his direction. Max freezes, like a bunny in headlights, trying to coax his own face into an answering smile.  
  
The jukebox abruptly shuts off mid-song.  
  
“No!” Rosa howls, dashing across to frantically press the buttons and give it a thump. It sputters back to life a moment later, allowing a visibly relieved Rosa to press play on  _Celebrity Skin_.  
  
But Maria is only half-paying attention to that. Because the lights dimmed at the same time as the jukebox cut out, and they’ve never done that before. The only other place it’s ever happened has been at school, when Max has been around Liz.  
  
Holy crap. She thinks Max Evans loves Liz  _so much_  that it’s spilling out into the world around him and causing the power surges.

* * *

Maria keeps her discovery to herself. It’s not like anybody will believe another one of her fanciful ideas; Alex only rolled his eyes and changed the topic of conversation when she offered to read his cards, and Rosa’s got worse lately, her cynicism taking a turn for the bitter.   
  
But the evidence keeps presenting itself again and again, so Maria’s happy to watch it play out, proof to her that true love really does exist and it can work miracles. She needs a few miracles in her life. In the meantime, she does her best to encourage Liz to dump Kyle, and drop little hints about how nice Max is. She likes to comment on his height whenever Kyle’s around—it makes Kyle’s aura flare acid green with jealousy.  
  
She’s only a little disappointed the day they all get sent home from school because of a blackout to discover it’s not because Max and Liz finally made out.


End file.
